How to play Chess Puzzle
The rules
- The opponent has just moved: the two squares of that move are marked.
- You play the side to move. Find the moves that lead to checkmate. The line above the board says how many moves you have, for example “White to move: mate in 2”.
- After each right move the opponent answers by itself.
- A wrong move is not played. The piece goes back and you try again. The number of wrong moves shows above the board.
- On your last move, any move that gives checkmate wins.
- A pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a queen (or the piece the solution needs).
How to play here
- Drag a piece to its square, or tap the piece and then the square. The squares the piece can go to show a dot, or a ring when the move takes a piece.
- On a keyboard, press Tab to go to a piece and Enter to pick it. The arrow keys move between the squares it can go to, and Enter plays the move. Escape puts the piece down again.
- Hint shows the piece to move, then how many moves are left to mate, then the move itself.
Difficulty levels
The level comes from the length of the mate and from the puzzle’s rating on Lichess.
| Level | The puzzles are |
|---|---|
| Easy | Mate in 1 or 2, rated 600–1199 on Lichess |
| Medium | Mate in 2, rated 1200–1599 |
| Hard | Mate in 2 or 3, rated 1600–1999 |
| Expert | Mate in 3 or 4, rated 2000–2699 |
Strategy
- Look at checks first: most mates start with a check, often a sacrifice.
- Look at the king’s escape squares: find which squares the king can still go to, and which piece can take them away.
- Ask what the last move did: the opponent’s move often leaves a square or a line open.
FAQ
- What happens if I play a wrong move?
- The move is not played. The piece goes back, the wrong-move counter goes up, and you try again. There is no limit and you cannot lose.
- Do I play White or Black?
- The side to move. The board turns so that your side is at the bottom, and the line above the board says which side you play.
- Is there a different puzzle every day?
- Yes, for 200 days in a row at each of the four levels: easy, medium, hard and expert. After that the puzzles of a level come round again in the same order. Earlier puzzles are in the archive.
- Where do the puzzles come from?
- From the Lichess puzzle database, which Lichess releases into the public domain. Every puzzle is a position from a real game with a forced mate, and every line is checked by a program before it is used.
- Do I need an account to play?
- No. You play right in your browser, with no sign-up and no cookies. Your progress is saved in your browser.